Oh no she didn’t just say “Dog Balls!”

No, Sarah Palin did not say, “Dog Balls!” We just took a picture from her recent New York Times profile and made it look like she said, “Dog Balls!” It’s a trick we picked up from our days reading cartoons. See, in real life, when someone talks, they don’t emit a bubble from their mouth that contains the words they’re speaking. Anyway, enough with the science lesson.

If you haven’t read the aforementioned profile then you probably still believe that Sarah Palin can’t read. Well, not only is she able to read, but apparently she’s been reading for quite some time and doesn’t appreciate you insinuating otherwise.

Palin became testy when I asked her about the books I heard she had been reading. “I’ve been reading since I was a little girl,” she snapped.

Look out! Mama Grizzly’s mad! She’s on her hind legs and has that look in her eye. That look she gets when she hasn’t had the sweet taste of Moose blood on her lips for more than a week! But can you really blame her?

A lot of people think Sarah Palin is a joke. But she’s not. See, there are two parts to a joke: the setup and the punchline. Sarah Palin is the punchline. Sarah Palin knows she’s the punchline. She also knows that to avoid being the joke she needs to do everything she can to avoid the setup. Thus her defensiveness when asked what books she’s been reading.

That’s also why it’s remarkable that she ventured outside her Twitter/Facebook/Fox News bubble and allowed herself and her inner-circle to be profiled by New York Times Magazine. The bubble affords her the opportunity to engage a broad audience without having to be engaged, allowing her to avoid the setup.

But in the profile Ms. Palin revealed what we already knew, that she is considering a run for president in 2012. Social media, friendly news outlets and reality television programming are means of communication on par with a cartoon’s word bubble. The message is always exactly as you would have it, but the messenger is always two-dimensional.

If Sarah Palin wants to be president she will have to continue to tempt the setup and submit herself to the scrutiny that lies beyond the bubble. Because this country will never elect a cartoon to be its president…